1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid-repellent film that may be used in a fine structure included in an ink jet recording head or the like and a production method therefor, and to a fine structure using the liquid-repellent film and a production method therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a liquid-repellent material (e.g., a water-repellent material) has been applied to various devices such as an integrated circuit, a display, a biochip, a battery, and an ink jet recording head. In the ink jet recording head, control of surface characteristics of the surface of an ejection orifice is important for obtaining satisfactory ink ejection performance. When ink remains in the vicinity of the ejection orifice, the flying direction of an ink droplet may be deflected, or a load may be applied to an ink droplet to be ejected to reduce the ejection speed of the ink droplet. As a method of ejecting ink with good precision by alleviating those problems, there is given a method involving subjecting an area around the ejection orifice to liquid-repellent processing.
Further, in order to densely arrange ejection orifices, a method involving employing photolithography for forming a member on which the ejection orifices are provided is useful. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-23525 discloses that as a liquid-repellent material having photosensitivity, a condensation product of a hydrolyzable silane compound having a fluorine-containing group and a hydrolyzable silane compound having a cationic polymerizable group is used. In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-23525, with the use of the liquid-repellent material, a liquid-repellent layer and a member on which ejection orifices are formed are simultaneously subjected to pattern exposure and development, to thereby subject an ejection orifice surface to liquid repelling processing.